Industry dismisses call to name and shame banks that have handled corrupt funds

Industry officials have described calls by anti-corruption campaigner Global Witness to "name and shame" UK banks which have handled billions of pounds of corrupt money from North African dictators as unworkable.
The non-governmental organisation has called for counter-money laundering regulations globally to be tightened to prevent banks from accepting illicit funds. An estimated $40bn in worldwide assets connected to Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, ex-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and former Tunisian head of state Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and their associates have been frozen since the North African and Middle East uprisings began earlier this year. The US authorities have frozen as much as $32bn while HM Treasury is estimated to have frozen as much as $3.2bn in dirty funds. Global Witness said that although governments globally had hailed the asset seizures as achievements they instead represented a "catastrophic failure" of money laundering rules.
One former regulator, who now

This article is only available in full to Compliance Complete
Africa UK and Europe North America Middle East Subscribers who are logged in.
Please log in to see if you can view this content.